WSOP 2008
Feature Table, Queen’s Kings Overthrown
by Court on 09.28.08, 8:11 pm
With the lights, cameras and TV crews swarming around it is somewhere between dificult and impossible to get into the area right around the feature table to see what is going on. The multi-leveled Empire Casino does provide some views of the table, though none from a vantage point where cards or bet amounts could be seen with any hope of accuracy.
The distant view is good enough to see who is there though, and more importantly who is not. There will be no amazing story of back to back World Series of Poker Europe Main Event victory for Annette “Annette_15″ Obrestad (right) this year. From this point on anything having to do with her and this tournament will be a promotional media based affair. We have been told from those around the feature table that Annette’s pocket kings fell to the A-Q of Marco Traniello, presumably all in preflop.
Shane “Shaniac” Schleger has was also eliminated from the feature table earlier today.
Other players missing in action include Jason “JCarver” Somerville who did not survive long into level 5 with his severe short stack, and Yevginiy “Atimos” Timoshenko (left) - one of my pre-tournament pick to go deep.
Adam Junglen is back on the right track though, recently picking up chips with a raise after a flop of 8
7
2. The other player in the pot bet out on the flop for 2,150 into the 3,400 chip pot. Junglen raised to 6,600 and his opponent folded the AK face up saying “I wanted you to raise me preflop.”
Day 1A started with 159 players and finished with 86 remaining. Todays numbers were a bit larger with 203 players starting the day. At last check the field was down to 14 tables and no more than 126 remaining players. That number will drop as the night continues and around 185 players are expected to make it to day 2 play out of the 362 total entrants. The number of entrants may be off by 1 or 2 as the official registration list won’t be out till later tonight.
Win With The Queen High
by Court on 09.28.08, 7:25 pm
In the realm of internet poker, a techno song titled “Win With The Ace High,” has gained a lot of popularity over the last few months after it became a staple on poker entertainment radio show PokerRoad Radio. Co-host Gavin Smith just got moved to a table where he saw a hand that makes calling with the ace high, as the line goes in the song “I call with the ace high, you can’t fool me,” look like childs play.
In a 3 way pot preflop with Gavin Smith, Jeff “ActionJeff” Garza, and Per Ummer all in for a enough to put around 4k in the pot. On the AT3 flop Jeff bet 3k when Per checked to him and after Gavin folded Ummer made the call. With the 2
on the turn Ummer and Garza both checked to see the T hit on the river.
So the hand has progressed to the river with the board showing AT32T and the action on Ummer. He paused in thought before counting out 5,800 worth of chips to put in the pot. Jeff thought for a few minutes before finally making the call. Since Jeff called it was on Ummer to show his hand first, and he decided he had to be beat and mucked. Garza (right) the tuned over Q-J offsuit for queen high to take the pot.
At this point I was thoroughly confused. Players calling a river bet with queen high is not something you see very often and I looked around for confirmation of the hand. Another reporter, also with a confused look, had seen the same thing. This was also the last hand of the 4th level and the players were headed out on break. Garza had stopped on his way out and was chatting with Adam Junglen. To confirm what I had seen I asked Garza about the hand and he said “I thought I was getting the odds to call,” in response to my “did I see that hand right, you called with queen high?” We chatted briefly, Jeff saying it had been a tough level and that was the only pot I won.
After a few minutes as I was walking away the hand in question registered with Junglen who said “You called a river bet with queen high?” in an amazed, incredulous tone.
Based on overheard conversation between Per Ummer and a table mate it sounded like he said he had king queen and had he shown his hand would have won the pot with king high. His cards were never shown that I know of so nobody other than Ummer will ever know for certain. Later Garza noted that Per actually said he was beat and that he did not have KQ.
A short stacked Jason “JCarver” Somerville will come back from the break looking to win a pot with anything he can, be it queen high or 4 of a kind. Somerville hasn’t been able to get anything going, sitting to the right of Daniel Negreanu who has had things going his way pretty much every step of the way so far.
The fifth and final level of the day will be player with 200 / 400 blinds and a 50 chip ante. After the final two hours of play both day 1s will be complete and all players remaining will come back tomorrow for combined day 2 play.
Stacking Up
by Court on 08.25.08, 10:06 pm
Isaac “Mr. Menlo” Baron just picked up a nice pot and is now over 100k. On a board of K
876 Isaac bet 6,500 and one of the two other players in the hand called (The player that folded tossed K-J, but nobody involved in the hand saw his cards). With the K on the river Isaac checked and his opponent made a very small bet of 3k. Isaac raised to 18k and the player quickly folded. After taking the pot Isaac is now up to 110k.
Here are how some other players around the room stack up:
Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein - 110k (right)
Isaac “Mr. Menlo” Baron - 110k
Matt “Mattg1983″ Graham - 87k
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman - 85k
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 80k
Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn - 80k
Shane “Shaniac” Schleger - 70k
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout - 65k
Amit “Amak316″ Makhija - 64k
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 49k
Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan - 47k
Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin - 45k
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 44k
Marh Newhouse - 40k
Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld - 40k
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 26k
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 17k
Bryan Devonshire - 16k
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 6,500
Jason “JCarver” Somerfield was all in with his short stack not long after break and was eliminated. Alec Torelli also seems to be missing from the tournament tables.
Wrong Direction
by Court on 08.25.08, 8:46 pm
For every player that gains chips and builds a stack there is another player that those chips had to come from. During the second level of the day both Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld and Jason “JCarver” Somerfield were on the giving out end. Somerfield saw his stack drop all the way down to 12k, but he is still confident he can make a comeback.
Jason (right) lost a huge pot with the nut flush draw against David Chiu who had an open ended straight draw and a smaller flush draw than Somerville. Chiu hit one of his outs to make a straight and Somerfield missed all his flush outs to lose a large pot.
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg had another tough level and is still hanging on with 8k, but the player to his immediate right ran a 10k stack up considerable in the last level. Peter “Nordberg” Feldman won a flurry of hands to build up a stack well over the average of 60k. In one pot Feldman opened from under the gun for 1,600 and a total of 5 players went to the flop of AT8 and Nordberg bet 5k. One player called and Peter again led out on the 9 turn for 8k. He was again called.
With the 6 river card Feldman (left) said “all in” and the other player went into the tank. Feldman had about 35k left when he went all in and had the other players 17,800 chips easily covered. After wrapping up his iPod and packing his belongings he sat back down and continued to consider the call. Finally another player called the clock and the floorman came over to give the minute countdown. After another 30 seconds of thought the player called and Feldman showed the QJ for a straight.
Another Peter saw his tournament come to an end during the last level. Peter “#1Pen” Neff never really got anything going and was ultimately eliminated when his AK lost a race to pocket tens. Ari Engel also looks to have been eliminated during the second level of day 2 play.